New International VersionWith eyes full of adultery, they never stop sinning; they seduce the unstable; they are experts in greed--an accursed brood!

New Living TranslationThey commit adultery with their eyes, and their desire for sin is never satisfied. They lure unstable people into sin, and they are well trained in greed. They live under God's curse.

English Standard VersionThey have eyes full of adultery, insatiable for sin. They entice unsteady souls. They have hearts trained in greed. Accursed children!

Berean Study BibleTheir eyes are full of adultery; their desire for sin is never satisfied; they seduce the unstable. They are accursed children with hearts trained in greed.

Berean Literal Biblehaving eyes full of adultery, and unceasing from sin; enticing unestablished souls; having a heart having been exercised in craving--children of a curse!

New American Standard Bible having eyes full of adultery that never cease from sin, enticing unstable souls, having a heart trained in greed, accursed children;

King James BibleHaving eyes full of adultery, and that cannot cease from sin; beguiling unstable souls: an heart they have exercised with covetous practices; cursed children:

Christian Standard BibleThey have eyes full of adultery that never stop looking for sin. They seduce unstable people and have hearts trained in greed. Children under a curse!

Contemporary English VersionAll they think about is having sex with someone else's husband or wife. There is no end to their wicked deeds. They trick people who are easily fooled, and their minds are filled with greedy thoughts. But they are headed for trouble!

Good News TranslationThey want to look for nothing but the chance to commit adultery; their appetite for sin is never satisfied. They lead weak people into a trap. Their hearts are trained to be greedy. They are under God's curse!

Holman Christian Standard BibleThey have eyes full of adultery and are always looking for sin. They seduce unstable people and have hearts trained in greed. Children under a curse!

International Standard VersionWith eyes full of adultery, they cannot get enough of sin. They seduce unsteady souls and have had their hearts expertly trained in greed. They are doomed to a curse.

NET BibleTheir eyes, full of adultery, never stop sinning; they entice unstable people. They have trained their hearts for greed, these cursed children!

New Heart English Biblehaving eyes full of adultery, and who cannot cease from sin; enticing unsettled souls; having a heart trained in greed; children of cursing;

Aramaic Bible in Plain EnglishHaving eyes that are full of adultery and sins that never end, as they seduce souls who are unstable and have a heart that is trained in greed, children of the curse.

GOD'S WORD® TranslationThey're always looking for an adulterous woman. They can't stop looking for sin as they seduce people who aren't sure of what they believe. Their minds are focused on their greed. They are cursed.

New American Standard 1977 having eyes full of adultery and that never cease from sin, enticing unstable souls, having a heart trained in greed, accursed children;

Jubilee Bible 2000having their eyes full of adultery, and not knowing how to cease from sin, baiting unstable souls, having their heart exercised in covetous practices; cursed sons,

King James 2000 BibleHaving eyes full of adultery, and that cannot cease from sin; beguiling unstable souls: a heart they have exercised with covetous practices; cursed children:

American King James VersionHaving eyes full of adultery, and that cannot cease from sin; beguiling unstable souls: an heart they have exercised with covetous practices; cursed children:

American Standard Versionhaving eyes full of adultery, and that cannot cease from sin; enticing unstedfast souls; having a heart exercised in covetousness; children of cursing;

Douay-Rheims BibleHaving eyes full of adultery and of sin that ceaseth not: alluring unstable souls, having their heart exercised with covetousness, children of malediction:

Darby Bible Translationhaving eyes full of adultery, and that cease not from sin, alluring unestablished souls; having a heart practised in covetousness, children of curse;

English Revised Versionhaving eyes full of adultery, and that cannot cease from sin; enticing unstedfast souls; having a heart exercised in covetousness; children of cursing;

Webster's Bible TranslationHaving eyes full of adultery, and that cannot cease from sin; beguiling unstable souls: they have a heart exercised with covetous practices; cursed children:

Weymouth New TestamentTheir very eyes are full of adultery--being eyes which never cease from sin. These men set traps to catch unstedfast souls, their own hearts being well trained in greed. They are fore-doomed to God's curse!

World English Biblehaving eyes full of adultery, and who can't cease from sin; enticing unsettled souls; having a heart trained in greed; children of cursing;

Young's Literal Translation having eyes full of adultery, and unable to cease from sin, enticing unstable souls, having an heart exercised in covetousnesses, children of a curse,

Proverbs 5:6She does not ponder the path of life; Her ways are unstable, she does not know it.

Ezekiel 13:18and say, 'Thus says the Lord GOD, "Woe to the women who sew magic bands on all wrists and make veils for the heads of persons of every stature to hunt down lives! Will you hunt down the lives of My people, but preserve the lives of others for yourselves?

Ephesians 2:3We all lived among them at one time in the cravings of our flesh, indulging its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature children of wrath.

2 Peter 2:3In their greed, these false teachers will exploit you with tales they have concocted. The longstanding verdict against them remains in force, and their destruction does not sleep.

2 Peter 2:18With lofty but empty words, they appeal to the sensual passions of the flesh and entice the ones who are just escaping from those who live in error.

2 Peter 3:16He writes this way in all his letters, speaking in them about such matters. Some parts of his letters are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction.

Treasury of Scripture

Having eyes full of adultery, and that cannot cease from sin; beguiling unstable souls: an heart they have exercised with covetous practices; cursed children:

(14) Of adultery.--Literally, of an adulteress. This verse has no counterpart in Jude.

That cannot cease from sin.--Literally, that cannot be made to cease from sin. (Comp. attentively 1Peter 4:1.) It was precisely because these men refused to "suffer in the flesh," but, on the contrary, gave the flesh all possible licence on principle, that they could not "cease from sin."

Beguiling.--Strictly, enticing with bait. We have the same word in 2Peter 2:18, James 1:14, and nowhere else. If "deceits" be the right reading in 2Peter 2:13, this clause throws some light on it. In any case, the metaphor from fishing, twice in this Epistle and only once elsewhere, may point to a fisherman of Galilee. (Comp. Matthew 17:27.)

With covetous practices.--Better, in covetousness. The word is singular, as in 2Peter 2:3, according to all the best MSS. and versions.

Cursed children.--Rather, children of malediction. So Rheims; Wiclif has "sones of cursynge." They are devoted to execration; malediction has adopted them as its own. (Comp. "son of perdition," John 17:12; 2Thessalonians 2:3.)

Verse 14. - Having eyes full of adultery, and that cannot cease from sin; literally, of an adulteress. Compare our Lord's words in the sermon on the mount (Matthew 5:28), which may have been in St. Peter's thoughts. For the second clause, comp. 1 Peter 4:1, "He that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin." Beguiling unstable souls; rather, enticing. The word δελεάζοντες, from δέλεαρ, a bait, belongs to the art of the fowler or fisherman, and would naturally occur to St. Peter's mind. He uses it again in verse 18 of this chapter (comp. also James 1:14). The word for "unstable" (ἀστηρίκτους) occurs only here and in 2 Peter 3:16. It is a word of peculiar significance in the mouth of St. Peter, conscious, as he must have been, of his own want of stability in times past. He would remember also the charge once given to him, "When thou art converted, strengthen (στήριξον) thy brethren" (Luke 22:32). An heart they have exercised with covetous practices; rather, trained in covetousness, according to the reading of the best manuscripts, πλεονεξίας. This is the third vice laid to the charge of the false teachers. They had practiced it so long that their very heart was trained in the habitual pursuit of gain by all unrighteous means. Cursed children; rather, children of curse. Like "the son of perdition," "children of wrath," "children of disobedience," "son of Belial," etc.

Having eyes full of adultery,.... For the seventh command is not only violated by unclean actions, and obscene words, but also by unchaste looks: and so the Jews explain (k) that precept,

""thou shalt not commit adultery", Exodus 20:14; you shall not go after your hearts, nor after "your eyes"; says R. Levi, the heart and the "eye" are sin's two brokers.''

Hence we read (l) of , "one that commits adultery with his eyes"; See Gill on Matthew 5:28; compare Job 31:1. Some read the words, "having eyes full of the adulteress": that is, having a lewd and infamous woman always in mind and sight, continually looking at her and lusting after her:

and that cannot cease from sin: which may be understood either of these wicked men, who are like the troubled sea, that cannot rest, but are continually casting up the mire and dirt of sin out of their polluted heart; who live and walk in sin, and are always committing it, their conversation being nothing else but one continued series of sinning; nor can they do otherwise, since they are slaves to their lusts, and are carried away with the force and power of them: or of their eyes, which were always rolling after unlawful objects; their eyes and their hearts were only, and always, for their lust, as the prophet says of others, that they were but for their covetousness, Jeremiah 22:17; a sin also which reigned in these men:

beguiling unstable souls: such as were unsteady in their principles, and unstable in their ways; were like children tossed to and fro with every wind of doctrine, not being rooted in Christ, nor established in the faith; these, as the serpent beguiled Eye, they corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ; imposed false doctrines on them, and deceived them by false glosses and outward appearances; and by fair words and good speeches, and by their wanton looks and carnal lusts, they allured them into the sin of adultery; or ensnared them, drew them into the net and snare of Satan, and so they were taken and led captive.

An heart they have exercised with covetous practices; an immoderate love of money, a covetous desire after it, is the root of all evil, the bane of religion, and source of heresy, and is a vice which has always prevailed among false teachers; and the character here given well agrees with Simon Magus, the father of heresies, and his followers: hence care is always taken to insert, among, the characters and qualifications of Gospel ministers, that they be not greedy of filthy lucre, 1 Timothy 3:3; this iniquity, when it is a reigning one, and is become an habit, as it was in the persons here described, for it had its seat in their heart, they were habituated to it, and continually exercised it in a multitude of instances and wicked practices, is insatiable and damnable:

cursed children; or "children of the curse"; which may be understood either actively, children that do curse, as children of disobedience are such as commit acts of disobedience; so these were cursing children, who, though their mouths might not be full of cursing and bitterness, as openly profane sinners be, yet they inwardly, and from their hearts, cursed the true followers of Christ, and their principles; or passively, cursed children who were under the curse of the law, and from which there was no redemption for them, but at the last day will have the awful sentence pronounced on them, Go, ye cursed, into everlasting fire.

14. full of adultery—literally, "full of an adulteress," as though they carried about adulteresses always dwelling in their eyes: the eye being the avenue of lust [Horneius]. Bengel makes the adulteress who fills their eyes, to be "alluring desire."

that cannot cease—"that cannot be made to cease from sin."

beguiling—"laying baits for."

unstable—not firmly established in faith and piety.

heart—not only the eyes, which are the channel, but the heart, the fountain head of lust. Job 31:7, "Mine heart walked after mine eyes."

cursed children—rather as Greek, "children of curse," that is, devoted to the curse. Cursing and covetousness, as in Balaam's case, often go together: the curse he designed for Israel fell on Israel's foes and on himself. True believers bless, and curse not, and so are blessed.

2:10-16 Impure seducers and their abandoned followers, give themselves up to their own fleshly minds. Refusing to bring every thought to the obedience of Christ, they act against God's righteous precepts. They walk after the flesh, they go on in sinful courses, and increase to greater degrees of impurity and wickedness. They also despise those whom God has set in authority over them, and requires them to honour. Outward temporal good things are the wages sinners expect and promise themselves. And none have more cause to tremble, than those who are bold to gratify their sinful lusts, by presuming on the Divine grace and mercy. Many such there have been, and are, who speak lightly of the restraints of God's law, and deem themselves freed from obligations to obey it. Let Christians stand at a distance from such.